Umpires Need Replay After Losing Track Of Balls And Strikes, Still Get Call Wrong

Even though we knew Major League Baseball's replay system would have some hiccups, nobody could have predicted umpires would need it just to remember the count and still get it wrong... And that is exactly what happened during a game between the Twins and Rays.

The confusion started on the fourth pitch of an at bat to Yunel Escobar in the fifth inning. Escobar checked his swing and the scoreboard operator mistakenly thought it was a foul ball and changed the count to two balls and two strikes when it should have been the third ball.

Escobar questioned the count.

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After checking his own hand-counter, the umpire seemingly agreed with the scoreboard even though replay showed Escobar did not foul the pitch.

Here is where things got really weird. The next pitch, the fifth pitch of the at bat, was a called strike yet the umpire signaled that the count was 2-2.

At this point, not only is the count wrong, but the umpire has messed up the count twice. Even Twins pitcher Samuel Deduno is confused at this point.

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The Rays think they should have a walk and the Twins think there should be a strikeout. So the umpires got together.

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They decided to use replay and still got it wrong, ruling that the count was 3-2 even though there had been six pitches.